The Tragedy of Lucretia is a tempera and oil painting on a wood cassone or spalliera panel by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, painted between 1496 and 1504. Known less formally as the Botticelli Lucretia, it is housed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, having been owned by Isabella Stewart Gardner in her lifetime. The picture is a syncretion of scenes from different legendary themes in different time periods that Botticelli considered related. The topic is revolt against tyranny, a popular one in the volatile Italian republics. The main scene is given center... foreground. It is the beginning of the revolution that created the Roman republic. The legend is that Lucretia, a noblewoman, was taken advantage of by the son of the last king of Rome, Sextus Tarquinius . As a result, Lucius Junius Brutus took an oath to expel the Tarquinii from Rome and never to allow anyone else to reign. In the centre of the picture Lucretia's corpse is on public display as a heroine. Brutus stands over her exhorting the populace to revolt and recruiting a revolutionary army of young men. There is much sword-waving.
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